ABOUT ME

I'm a quiet, contemplative kind of gypsy wanderer of the West Coast. I've lived all over Washington, Oregon, and California but I've hardly ventured outside it's borders.

I was born and raised in Southern Oregon, which I think of as the real, modern 'wild west'. The area I grew up in was originally settled by loggers and miners and later in the 1960s, by disillusioned hippies, coming to live in the safety and isolation of the redwood forests. I spent my early years in these same forests, climbing the mountains and watching the scenery change, hiking for a full day before running across any sign of a human presence, swimming an endless network of rivers and streams, in scenes reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie.

I can recall one house we lived in, which was converted from a barn and still had a dirt floor for the first summer we lived there. My father, being only about 20 and having limited carpentry knowledge, built it's floor before the freezing winter came. We had no electricity or running water during this time and I can remember straining my eyes to read until the sun went down completely and everyone had no choice but to get to bed. We used our old-fashioned cast-iron woodstove for everything. In the winter, we'd collect water from a creek at the bottom of the hill and haul buckets to fill the washtub. Mom would heat up the water on the woodstove for hours and the 4 of us kids would have to share the same bathwater, bathing two at a time. When we needed firewood, we cut it. When we needed nuts, berries, honey, or sap, we collected it.

I never thought any of this was abnormal, as it was more or less common in Southern Oregon. When I met people from elsewhere, especially the cities, I started to recognize my experience as somewhat unique.

And some remaining factoids;

I've been a college student, maybe for a bit too long now. I began studying Evolutionary Biology & Genetics but ended up switching to Anthropology, since I had a ridiculous number of Anth credits anyway. Then I took to History with the intent to study Law and then one last switch to Economics / Accountancy, later switching my focus to Accountancy / Taxation. What can I say - everything interests me, sometimes to a fault.

I'm an Atheist, a Buddhist, and yet I believe all religions are correct. I've been told that makes me a Unitarian Universalist. I'm one of the only atheists I've ever known that loves and defends religion (though defending the ignorance of their followers is a different story).

I've been vegetarian for 12 years and strictly vegan for about 4 now. I've cooked from scratch since I was 5 years old and I delight in cooking delicious vegan versions of the awful, fatty shit I grew up eating - and getting non-vegans to enjoy it too is a huge bonus.

I garden, I practice bookbinding and macrame, I'm an amateur genealogist.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meet people, lend a hand.

Interests

Music, Comedy
Biology / Genetics
Psychology
Genealogy
World Religions
World History
Politics
Social Economics
Law / Crime

• cooking
• vegetarian
• vegan
• running
• gardening
• politics
• music
• hiking
• atheism
• rock climbing
• swimming
• anthropology
• biology
• economics
• genealogy
• history
• law
• psychology
• religion
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Adult Swim

Cheech & Chong

Ren & Stimpy

Comedy, Sci-Fi, Documentaries

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I really can't say any one thing i've seen or done is amazing. I'm working on that one.

Countries I’ve Visited

United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States